Spark Networks has announced that its American Depositary Shares expect to begin trading on the OTCQX Best Market under the ticker symbol LOVLY on September 8, 2023. The brand is the parent company of dating apps Zoosk, EliteSingles, Christian Mingle, and more.
Spark Networks announced that these shares will no longer be traded on the NASDAQ as of today.
OTCQX is the top tier of three markets organised by OTC Markets Group Inc. The market specialises in trading over-the-counter securities and is designed for established, investor-focused U.S. and international companies.
Investors can find current market information and real-time quotes for the Company on www.otcmarkets.com
Global Dating Insights reported in May that Spark Networks would be closing its Berlin offices and laying off around 200 full-time employees. In its recent Q2 financial report, the company’s Interim CEO highlighted that it would be looking to outsource a significant portion of its technology and operations.
A survey of 3,100 Americans has revealed new insights about distracted dating. Almost 63% of respondents said that they would not go on a second date with someone who was distracted on their first meeting.
65% of those surveyed said that they have responded to a text message during a date. Furthermore 7% of respondents said that they have even opened a dating app while on a date.
Women are 24.1% less likely than men to give distracted individuals another chance, with women 9% more likely to be annoyed when their date glances at their phone.
The length of the relationship plays a big factor in how respondents feel about dating distractions. 83% of those surveyed said that they’re more likely to be distracted on a date with a long term partner, compared to on a first date.
If a relationship had been going for less than a year, 24.4% of respondents said they would follow the score of their favourite sports team while on a date. However, with relationships of 10+ years, that number rises to 34% of respondents.
On a national scale, Texans are the most inattentive daters, checking their phones on average four times during a date. Meanwhile daters in Maryland will pay the most attention on a date, with 39% saying they would put their phones on ‘do not disturb’.
New dating app RAW is encouraging users to share stories of heartache on TikTok, rewarding posts with access to its Premium version. The platform is on a mission to mend 100 broken hearts every week, one story at a time.
Heartbreak is often romanticized in movies, RAW highlights. In reality, these painful experiences are unpleasant and “unfiltered”. Ultimately though, heartache is part of the truth and journey of romance.
RAW is “constantly encouraging our users to share realistic and unfiltered photos of themselves and their everyday life. Otherwise, we’re all just missing out on truthfulness and immediacy of life, and losing ourselves in the process”, says Marina Anderson, co-founder of RAW.
To help support singles who are experiencing heartache, the platform is encouraging people to share their stories on TikTok. These stories will then be shared, with other singles invited to rate the “broken heart” scale in the comments.
Based on these ratings, RAW will reward singles accordingly with access to its Premium version. The user with the most touching story of heartbreak will receive a dream date experience paid for by the app.
“Our mission is to mend 100 broken hearts every week, one story at a time,” says Anderson. “We believe that by sharing our experiences, supporting one another, and staying true to ourselves, we can transcend the pain of heartbreak and embrace the possibilities of love once again”.
RAW requires users to take a new photo everyday using their device’s two cameras. The time of the posting changes daily, keeping users on their toes and creating spontaneity.
Hello Group, a leading mobile social and entertainment platform in China, has reported increased revenues for Q2 of 2023. Momo, one of its popular dating app platforms, has seen revenue growth despite a decrease to its total paying users.
Across the board, Hello Group’s total net revenues were RMB3,137.7 million (US$432.7 million) in Q2 of 2023, an increase of 0.9% from the same period last year.
For the Momo segment of its earnings, the company shared that revenues rose to RMB2,816.6 million (US$388.4 million) in the second quarter of 2023, up from RMB2,779.5 million in Q2 2022.
This increase came as a result of an “increase in net revenues from live video service and the new standalone apps”, Hello Group highlighted. Revenues rose despite the platform losing 700,000 paying users over the past 12 months, taking the current total to 7.9 million.
Hello Group also operates the dating app Tantan, which saw paying users decrease by 600,000 and monthly active users decrease by 7.5 million, since this period last year.
The company’s current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions mean that it predicts a total net revenue decrease of 10.3% to 7.2% year over year in Q3 of 2023.
Clubhouse has this week announced big changes to its app. The company says that its new focus is on friendships, new and old, and it hopes to achieve that through its audio messaging ‘chats’.
Clubhouse was established in March 2020 and achieved a lot of success in the pandemic. It has millions of users and invites people to have live audio chats on the platform. The idea is that more context, more tone and more personality can be shared through audio based communication. The app is now, not removing the live chat feature, but shifting its focus to smaller and closed audio based messaging groups.
Clubhouse wants to become like a house party. It said in a blog post that the new ‘friend of friend’ messaging chats will create ‘a nice dinner or house party vibe, where people have shared social context and feel accountable. There are no randoms, no spammers, and no people trying to gain followers at your expense.’
During the pandemic, it says it was easy for people to find relevant live content that appealed to them, but when life has gone a bit more back to normal, live chats have been less useful as people are less often all congregated on the app at the same time. Chats combat this by being something users can far more easily check in on throughout the day, rather than need to be their live.
The app argues that voice notes lead to a more social experience where people express more of their personality and say things they would never type out. One of the biggest changes to the app, is that one way follows will now turn into friend requests. Those who have worked to create a huge following on the platform might find this particularly frustrating and a hassle.
Now the focus is on smaller group chats, where voice notes can be shared throughout the day. Messages can be listened to on double time speed for those in a rush. And they are all transcribed for those in an environment at the time where they cannot listen.
The app is making a shift that we are seeing all over. Smaller, more personal groups, where people’s voices (literally) in this case can be heard and valued are becoming more and more attractive, than the chaos of social networks, in which the whole world is your potential audience. This shift puts the social back into social apps.
Dutch dating app Breeze harnesses AI to suggest singles to one another. However, the platform realised that its algorithm was putting people with a darker skin colour at a disadvantage. They’ve now taken the first step to putting it right.
Thomas Crul, a matchmaking researcher and data analyst at Breeze, explained the series of events in a recent LinkedIn post.
“At Breeze…I discovered a possible problem within our matchmaking system: in short, we suspect that the learning algorithm reinforces human prejudices, putting users of non-Dutch backgrounds at a disadvantage”, he shared.
“Because of the seriousness and sensitivity of this possible problem”, the platform took this issue to the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights. Breeze wanted to hear the organisation’s perspective on how it should respond.
The situation is complicated as “implementing levelling measures” to reduce discriminatory outcomes could be seen as a “preferential policy” that is not allowed, Crul highlighted.
“Measures that Breeze must take to prevent indirect discrimination are not regarded by the Board as a form of preferential policy. This would not give users a privileged position, but would only compensate them for a threat of subordination. After all, users with a dark skin color or non-Dutch origin would then not be introduced relatively more often, but “only” as often as the other users.”
Now that this first step has been completed, the next question is how can the algorithm be fixed? Both the Institute and Crul highlight that remediating any discrimination would require knowing personal details about the user’s background, opening up a GDPR can of worms.
The situation is no doubt complicated and full of regulatory questions. While we wait to see how Breeze continues to address this issue, it is clear that they have done the right thing by flagging up its own discriminatory algorithms and beginning the journey to more equitable outcomes.
Thomas Crul shares that “if you as a reader have expertise and / or experience on these topics and would like to think along with us about a solution, please contact me!”. You can find his LinkedIn profile here.
SoulMatcher, a new dating app that specialises in psychological-based matchmaking, has launched on the Google Play Store. Now available to Android-powered devices, the brand looks to continue its mission to bring together compatible singles.
Natalia Sergovantseva, Founder of SoulMatcher, shared that the expansion of the platform’s reach will further provide opportunities for “the convergence of innovation and psychology firsthand”.
The platform looks to match users who are mentally compatible with one another, encouraging users to take an in-app psychological test. This can determine levels of empathy or narcissism, for example, which then plays a key role in the viability of relationships.
Another unique aspect of the platform is the ability to evaluate friends and matches, allowing for P2P ratings amongst users. For example, users can conduct a peer assessment where they evaluate the personality traits of others, with the score being aggregated together.
Users on dating app Badoo are now encouraged to share what their texting habits are. The platform looks to promote openness about ‘textpectations’, as a survey showed 59% of UK singles agree it would be helpful to know someone’s messaging style upfront.
The key to lasting relationships is often said to be communication, so understanding how a potential partner prefers to communicate via text can be very important to some. Badoo’s research found 70% of singles agree that mismatched messaging styles can have a negative impact on a potential connection.
To address this issue, Badoo partnered with sex & relationship therapist Charlene Douglas to craft a new prompt for user profiles. Singles will now be able to display their ‘texting love languages’, highlighting how they prefer to interact with others.
These 5 texting love languages are:
Texts of Affirmation – Text me all day: This person loves to message all-day, everyday
Quality Texter – I need all the detail: This person is all about detailed, thought-through messages
Receiving GIFs – Emojis over essays: This person will likely only send an emoji or a reaction, but it doesn’t mean they don’t like you!
Texts of Service – Let’s make plans: This person messages for practical reasons only, for example to arrange a date
Light-touch – I’d rather chat IRL: This person isn’t great with messaging, and prefers to communicate IRL
The research from Badoo found that 60% of respondents have experienced doubts or ended a conversation because they were over analysing the meaning behind someone’s messaging style.
“It’s important to get to know someone’s messaging style before interpreting a delayed reply, lack of response or excited reply as a sign that they’re either not interested in you, or a bit ‘too much’”, explained Charlene Douglas.
“I know it’s easier said than done, so I’d always recommend discussing your ‘textpectations’ with a new connection, and to understand theirs, as you could miss out on forming a relationship with a fantastic person due to a simple misunderstanding. And no one wants that!”
“Badoo’s new profile feature makes this all the more easy, so I’d encourage singles to give it a try and set their “textpectations”, and enjoy the confidence and clarity that it’ll bring to future connections”, she concluded.
Remy Le Fèvre, Senior Director Global Marketing and Communications, at Badoo, added “Mismatched messaging styles shouldn’t put a stop to blossoming connections. Messaging someone is something we do everyday; so in dating, it should feel easy and straightforward”.
“That’s why Badoo members can now add ‘What’s your texting love language?’ question to their profiles, to help people set their “texpectations” and make clear from the off how they like to communicate and be communicated with. At Badoo, we’re committed to building confidence amongst our community , and we’re excited to see how this new feature will support people to create great, meaningful connections from the start”, he shared.
In this episode of The GDI Podcast, we’re delighted to be joined by Lily Primamore and Brian Yurachek, the Co-Founders of SPILT.
They tell Senior Reporter Sean Nolan about how the dating platform helps foster immersive and personalised Virtual Reality spaces, where users can connect and explore their desires.
Lily and Brian share how they plan to acquire users through partnerships with art influencers, as well as releasing innovative merch.
The GDI Podcast is sponsored by RealMe. RealMe can provide users instant access to background information, helping more people make genuine connections online, and off.
To learn how they can integrate seamlessly into your app, log on to therealme.com/dating and request a demo today.
Letterboxd is a platform in which you can track and rate every movie you have ever watched, share your reviews, and see what your friends are watching. And Goodreads does much the same for books. They are both major hubs online for lovers of films and books. And they have in their own right become social discovery platforms that service their audience.
Both have been around for over 10 plus years, but it could be argued it was the pandemic that really boosted their numbers. Goodreads is now owned by Amazon, and is often credited with making or breaking the success of authors and books. And Letterboxd boasts over 9 million users. At the start of the pandemic, that number was only 1.3 million.
Through both platforms you can respectively see what books or films your friends are watching and what they think of them. One survey showed that it is in user generated content like this that makes social discovery platforms enticing and useful to users. The survey showed that people did not take the recommendations of influencers too seriously, and are much more swayed by recommendations of friends they know and can trust.
Letterboxd was created by New Zealand pair Matthew Buchanan and Karl Von Randow, and operates a free and subscription based model. That site is free to read for all, but only signed up users can leave reviews. Subsequently, fee paying members gain access to a host of features such as a “year in Review” of their watching.
Social discovery apps are growing in popularity, partly because they are smaller than the world of traditional social media, where everything and everyone is fighting for attention and spotlight. On sites that explore one particular topic, one niche, it is much easier to find a community that is like minded with you, and to be heard. They might have huge user bases, but used in the right way,Letterboxd and Goodreads can be places of community and social discovery for you and your friends.
